


Look Who's Talking

by softjoycebyers



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Family, Fluff, Romance, Young Jopper
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 07:40:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14765411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softjoycebyers/pseuds/softjoycebyers
Summary: Joyce and Hopper make a very important decision in a really random place.





	Look Who's Talking

**Author's Note:**

> I'm in the business of writing fluff, friends. 
> 
> As always all mistakes are mine.

“Do you think we’ll ever have one of those?” Hopper asks hesitantly. 

“One of what?” Joyce replies distractedly. 

They were in Hawkin’s larger market looking for gift for the Powell’s baby shower–a party Hopper barely remembers agreeing to attend but, here they were. And Joyce ever the practical one was looking for a practical gift, clothes and toys were fine (and there was some of that in their cart already), but if there was anything having two boys taught her was they would diapers, and lots of them. 

She pauses in her sizing of brands to look towards Hopper who nods his head in the direction of the smiling happy baby on the box. 

Joyce follows his gaze, “You’re kidding.” Incredulous. 

Hopper shrugs. He’d actually been thinking about this a lot lately. 

Powell couldn’t stop raving about becoming a new dad, and somehow that excitement had transfered, and now Hopper couldn’t get the idea of the possiblity out of his head.

He remembered what that feeling was like: going to the doctor’s appointments, hearing the heartbeat for the first time–nothing quite compared to that feeling, or the feeling of the baby kick against his palm. He was only slightly bitter he wasn’t there for Jane sooner–if only to save her from Brenner before he had time to do any real damage. 

“I can’t have a baby now,” Joyce scoffs. 

“Why not?”

“I’m too old,” she mutters dejectedly. 

“Hardly.” 

His response is met with met with an eye roll. 

“Besides, from what I hear, women are having babies well into their thirties and forties these days.”

She finally settls on a box of diapers, and places it in the cart. 

Joyce laughs and says, “you really need to cut back on the Oprah Show for a while, bub.” 

Hopper chuckles, “I can’t help it. She’s quite the lady–Jane’s got me hooked on it, and Flo only keeps one channel on at the station. It’s hard to tune her out sometimes.”   
“You’re old,” she bumps his shoulder with hers as their laughter subsides. 

“You got me there,” He muses. “I’m definitely not in the same shape I was when I had Sara. I’m not even in the same shape I was two years ago.” 

A beat passes. 

“Are you trying to convince me?” She asks him.

“Are you trying to talk me out of it?” Hopper raises a brow. “I’m not sure, really.” He finally concedes. 

He had almost resolved himself to never bring this up. It was only part of him anyway that still held on to this long forgotten dream that stemming from a conversation he and Joyce had had many years ago–one Joyce tried to forget and swore to herself she’d never think about again. 

“We already have 3 kids between us.” 

“What’s one more?” He says without thinking. 

Her breath catches in her throat. Joyce wasn’t opposed to the idea, not really. But she didn’t want to dwell too much on the thought because if she did she could come up with a litney of reasons as why they shouldn’t have a baby. 

“I smoke too much,” but that wasn’t going to stop her from trying. 

“We can both quit,” two could play that game, Hopper thinks to himself. 

“I work too much,” she pushes back.

“You know you don’t have too,” He shakes his head. “There are two incomes now.”

Joyce gave him a look, he knew how much she valued her economic independance, but nevertheless she acquiesces to his point, she could stand to cut back on someone of her hours, besides she thinks, Donald was a little scared of her so she didn’t anticipate much of a problem there if she ever did ask. 

“Jane is still adjusting,” She tries again more matter of factly now. 

“Yes,” he nodds in agreement. “So what’s your point?”

“We haven’t had enough time,” she says feebly. 

Joyce knows her resolove is weakening, not that it was ever strong to begin with, and she realizes she doesn’t know why she’s fighting him so hard on this–there isn’t a shortage of love or patience in their family. 

“Yeah, I understand.” 

Hopper understood her reservations for not wanting to have another baby, his more rational side had them too, and he also didn’t want to pressure her into it if it wasn’t something she wanted.

“Hold on,” she adds quickly, “I didn’t say no.” 

“What?” 

“I didn’t say no.”

Once upon a time, many many years ago, in their post-coital haze (before Nam, Lonnie, the complications of adulthood, and otherworldly monsters) they had talked about who their hypothetical child might look like. It was a rare night in which their much younger selves had indulged in these types of sappy hypotheticals. 

“Well any kid we have would be blonde,” Hop said as he lit a cigarette and took a drag before passing it to Joyce.

“Poor kid,” She laughed. “I hated being blonde.”

Hopper grumbles in disagreement, “I thought you were cute.” 

Joyce wrinkles her nose at that comment. 

“I hated being called cute.” She snuggles into his side and he kisses her head. 

“I think I kind of see your roots,” He says amusedly. 

She gaped at him and lazily punches his chest, “You’re such an asshole. You can’t help yourself can you?” 

Sighing contentedly, she decides to play along with his little fantasy, “Well, it’d have your eyes. A girl could get lost in those baby blues.”

Hopper howled, reaching over to put out the cigarette on the ashtray on the nightstand. 

“Was that your best pickup line, Horowitz?” 

Joyce laughes with him, it was pretty bad. 

“I don’t know,” she snorts, “I’ve never had to use one before, you’re already in my bed.”

“Touché.”

“But I have to disagree,” He rolls them over so they were at eye level. “It would have your eyes.”

Joyce smiled bashfully as Hopper kissed her lids, “Your wonderfully expressive doe-shaped brown eyes.”

“Your nose,” He went on and pecked it. “Which is so much cuter than mine,” Joyce giggles. 

“And definitely your mouth,” He pressed his lips to hers, and as the words settled into her head she chortles against his mouth. 

“Wait,” Joyce tugs at the hair at the base of his neck, mirth in her eyes. “Are you talking about features you’d like our baby to have or just describing my face? We seem to have taken a weird turn.”

Hopper face lit up quicker than she’s ever seen, his smile was almost blinding, and his teeth made a rare appearance. 

“I like the sound of that,” He kisses her again. “Our baby.”

“When did you become such a sap?” Joyce asks as they brake apart for air. 

Hopper shrugs, nuzzling her neck. 

“I won’t hold it against you.”

She was startled out of her reverie by a noise in the other aisle. 

“You alright?” Hop asked. 

“We can try,” Joyce tells him in lieu of answering his question. 

“What?” He wasn’t following. 

“For a baby,” She repeats. “We can try.”

At her words his face lit up again, much like the way she remembers from that night, only now it’s older and more mature, but his smile is just as brilliant.   
Hopper hugs her tightly to chest as if he’s heard the best news of a life time, picking her up off the ground. He hadn’t fully let himself believe that she’d agree.

“But we’re not gonna get disappointed if it doesn’t happen,” Joyce tries to say firmly after he’s put her back on the ground–it’s a lie and they both know it.

Hopper feels himself nod along. He knew Joyce wanted to remain realistic, and it would hurt less if they were both honest in the possibility that it might not happen for them. But still, Hopper couldn’t help but be a bit optimistic, and that was a fact he would keep to himself. 

“And we won’t tell the kids yet, not unless there’s something to tell.”

**Author's Note:**

> There is more to this that's already written (because it was posted on tumblr), but that's 12 pages long and needs to be revisited before I post here.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed, and thank you for reading!


End file.
